The ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign has been launched in Nepal through a virtual program on 2021 May 10. The campaign, which was started in India by Sunil Jaglan, has gained immense popularity and has alsoreceived support from the Indian government. The main aim of the campaign is to raise awareness on issues related to women’s empowerment and gender equality. The movement was formally launched virtually in Nepal through joint coordination of Selfie with Daughter Foundation,Nepal Internet Foundation and India Internet Foundation. The chief guests of the virtual launch programme were Tazanna Shrestha from Nepal who is a Class 8 student and Anveshi Srimal from India who is currently studying in Class 9. During the launch young girls from both Nepal and India put forward their feelings and thoughts. Bikram Shrestha, President of Nepal Internet Foundation, mentioned traditions like the chhaupadi, which are against women, are still prevalent in Nepal and the ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign would help raise awareness on the importance and rights of daughters. Former Minister for Information and Communications Technology, Ganesh Shah, who was a guest at the launch programme, mentioned that he would support the campaign in the best way he could. Union Minister of State of India Rao Inderjit Singh was the chief guest at the event. Addressing the program, Singh stated that the ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign had had a positive impact on raising social awareness in India. He said that such campaigns should be launched to develop social consciousness through technology to eradicate the scourge of daughters and treat them differently from sons in Nepal and India. The Selfie with Daughter campaign has not only made daughters and women socially stronger, but the campaign has also taught us to give respect to daughters in society, and this campaign has taken the form of a people’s movement. Similarly, former Minister for Women, Children, and Senior Citizens of the Government of Nepal Julie Kumari Mahato addressed the program. Speaking on occasion, Mahato said that in a less developed country like Nepal, children are still discriminated against, dowry, and other social evils and these practices have caused problems for a very long time. She also stated no other campaign became as popular and viral as the Selfie with Daughter campaign before Nepal. Furthermore, she said that the social revolution of respect for daughters, which started from India’s neighboring country, is moving ahead at a fast pace in Nepal. Therefore, a campaign like ‘Selfie with Daughter’ would help develop social consciousness. The campaign has also launched a competition whereby any Nepali citizen can participate by taking a selfie with their daughter and submitting the photograph on social networking sites with the hashtag #selfiewithdaughter and submit it to 9801000044 on Selfie with Daughter in the portal and WhatsApp to compete for the 'Best Selfie Title'. There were some criteria for the campaign.
The photo must be with daughter and parents.
There must be a natural smile on the face of daughter.
Photo must be from Nepali citizens.
Thousands of selfies were sent with their daughters during a month-long campaign in Nepal. The selfie of Pratibha Ghising and her daughter Pratishtha Lama has won the first prize in this campaign. Similarly, granddaughter Nishudika Rai’s selfie with Dakshya Bahadur Rai and Moti Sara has secured the second position. In contrast, a selfie of Yamuna Prasai and Shreya Poudel has secured the third position. The winners have been awarded trophies and certificates worth Rs 21,000, Rs 11,000, and Rs 5,100. The objective of this campaign is sensitization of the society in general and male towards the rights, equality, education, health, safety, empowerment of girls & women and brings awareness in the society against abortion of girl child/sex determination. The Selfie with Daughter campaign was highly praised and appreciated by many national and international organizations for its significant contribution to Women’s Empowerment, like by The United Nation’s High-Level Political Forum in 2017. This campaign was also appreciated by the Economic Survey of India, 2019, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 35-nation international organization, in Nov. 2020. SWD-F team has visited Nepal and together with Nepal Internet Foundation we have conducted different programs from 29th November to 6th December 2021 in different places of Nepal. On 30th November in the support of Women Entrepreneur Association of Nepal we have conducted a program on Uttargaya Rural Municipality and Neelkantha secondary school Uttargay where we have provided training on Woman Entrepreneur through Internet program to women and gender sensitization, equal rights for girls, their marriage after minimum 20 years are the main topic which were discussed at Neelkantha secondary school student. On 1st December we conducted a program on Bohre, Kavrepalanchowk, Nomobuddha Rural Municipality where we conducted a program on Satmul Secondary School. On 2nd December we conducted a program at Kathmandu University with students and teachers of the social work/community development department. On 3rd December we conducted a program at Tribhuvan University with students and teachers of the social work/community development department. On 4th December we conducted a meeting with Civil Society Leaders (Tewa, Change Neapl, Rotary Internetional and JCI) where we discussed how to promote our girl and provide equal chance. On 5th December we conducted physical program on Rastraya Nachghar Jamal where Honorable Minister Uma Regmi Women Child Development and Senior Citizen was the chief guest where we provide award to the SWD winning contestant, Women and Children Empowerment through Internet Program and Orange the World ``End the Violence Against the Women” in the program Honorable Minister Uma Regmi also appreciate our work and told to help in our social cause. From the program we are able to support, aware many girls/women in different parts of Nepal.
